WASHINGTON (January 21, 2025) – WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) and Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) introduced the Ending Improper Payments to Deceased People Act to save billions of federal dollars by curbing erroneous payments to individuals who have passed away.
Kennedy’s original bipartisan legislation set up provisions to save federal taxpayer dollars by curbing erroneous government payments to deceased individuals for a temporary three-year period, and the new bill would make the temporary provisions permanent.
“In 2023 alone, the federal government sent $1.3 billion to dead people. The Ending Improper Payments to Deceased People Act would permanently correct bureaucratic errors so that Americans’ tax dollars don’t get wasted or stolen,” said Kennedy.
“This bill would help save millions of taxpayer dollars by ensuring that the Social Security Administration can permanently share important data with the Treasury’s Do Not Pay system, preventing wrongful payments to deceased individuals. I have long supported this legislation because I believe it is a vital step in safeguarding taxpayer dollars and ensuring the integrity of our payment systems,” said Peters.
Earlier this month, the Treasury Department announced that it recovered $31 million in fraud and improper payments during the first five months of the implementation of Senator Kennedy’s Stopping Improper Payments to Deceased People Act in which the Social Security Administration shared it’s Death Master File with the Treasury Department in order to avoid erroneous payments on a temporary basis.
The Ending Improper Payments to Deceased People Act would permanently amend the Social Security Act to allow the Social Security Administration to share the Death Master File—a record of deceased individuals—with the Treasury Department’s Do Not Pay system. This change would rein in the government’s ability to make improper payments to deceased people into the future.
The bill would also allow Treasury’s Do Not Pay working system to compare death information from the Social Security Administration with personal information from other federal entities and to share this information with any paying or administering agency that is authorized to use the Do Not Pay system.
Background:
- In Dec. 2024, Kennedy urged his colleagues to save taxpayer dollars and support the Ending Improper Payments to Deceased Americans Act on the Senate floor.
- In May 2024, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs unanimously passed Kennedy’s Ending Improper Payments to Deceased People Act.
- Kennedy’s Stopping Improper Payments to Deceased People Act became law in December 2020. The bill mandates the sharing of the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File with the Department of the Treasury’s Do Not Pay working system within three years after enactment. The three-year exchange runs from December 27, 2023 to December 27, 2026.
- In 2021, Kennedy wrote this op-ed sounding the alarm on the government’s sending more than $1 billion to deceased Americans.
- In 2019, Kennedy questioned U.S. Government Accountability Office Comptroller General Hon. Gene L. Dodaro about improper payments sent to deceased people.
Full bill text is available here.
